And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Monday, December 23, 2024
Airbus A319 Cockpit View of Two Female Pilots Landing at one of the world's most difficult airports - Paro, Bhutan.
Retired airline pilot here, with experience on Airbus products, although not the A319. Some random observations and some follow-on thoughts.....
* This is a crazy-ass place to put an airport. It requires extraordinary maneuvering during visual conditions (as seen here), and I have to imagine that getting in here when the visibility is low would be impossible. * I hate, hate, hate these Ooooh-Lookit-us. We're-girl-pilots-and-we're-going-to-do-things-just-like-the-boys-do videos. I don't care what is between your legs or who you sleep with. Just do the job. Or do something else. * That said, these pilots seem to have done a fine job with that approach and landing. I don't mind at all that the copilot appeared to offer a (Buddhist?) prayer. Prayer doesn't hurt any of us. * Listen again to the video, and you'll note that the airplane reports several of the heights above the ground more than once. These come from the radar altimeter, which reads how much room you have below you at any given moment. You'll hear it say "Two Thousand" and "Four Hundred" twice. This tells you that the terrain in the area is undulating, and this is very unusual at most airports. * After touchdown, the airplane directs the pilot to "Retard" the throttles. An old Airbus joke: The first time the plane says "Retard", that's a verb. The second time it says it, it is used as a noun.
Despite these 2 pilots doing a great job here, I will not get on an airline from a third-world country. The reason? Pakistan 8303.
Pakistan 8303 incurred a fatal crash of all souls on board at Karachi, Pakistan on May 22, 2020. The TL:DR of the story is that their approach to the airport was far outside what is required of a stabilized approach. They were crazy high...like an altitude three times too high....too close to the airport, forcing an extremely steep approach. They were so steep that they could not get their airspeed low enough for the airplane to allow them to lower the landing gear. Despite the warnings they were getting, they kept pressing the approach all the way to touchdown, where they touched down on the engines[!] because the landing gear still wasn't down. They then began a go-around maneuver, got airborne again, but because both engines were severely damaged to the point of failing, the plane crashed in a neighborhood nearby. 97 died.
If that was the end of the story, it would be bad enough. But no. The story continues.
As the investigators began to look into things, something about the copilot stood out. His qualifications just weren't right. He had a fake pilot's license.
But we're not at the end of the story yet.
When the investigators began to dig deeper, they found that Fourty percent of Pakistan's pilots had these fake licenses.
ICAO (the European "FAA") revoked Pakistan's approval to fly in Europe. Whatever planes they had in Europe were grounded and the crews in Europe had to find their way home on some other airline.
So, no. I don't trust a third-world airline. Maybe your pilot will turn out to be great, as these two in the video appear to me. But maybe your pilot will turn out to be not a pilot at all.
Blancolirio on Youtube has a series on this. If you're interested, you can begin here.
Other than the co-pilot looking like she's praying and crossing herself, that pilot knows her shit.
ReplyDeletePilot gal gets it done, don't even break a sweat.
ReplyDeleteProbably done that dozens of times.
Biggskye in Missouri
Why don't these vids go to fullscreen?
ReplyDelete^^^I'm not complaining I just don't want utoob to get any clicks.
DeleteAt 1m35 the co-pilot is making the motions for a Buddhist prayer.
ReplyDeleteAl_in_Ottawa
Retired airline pilot here, with experience on Airbus products, although not the A319. Some random observations and some follow-on thoughts.....
ReplyDelete* This is a crazy-ass place to put an airport. It requires extraordinary maneuvering during visual conditions (as seen here), and I have to imagine that getting in here when the visibility is low would be impossible.
* I hate, hate, hate these Ooooh-Lookit-us. We're-girl-pilots-and-we're-going-to-do-things-just-like-the-boys-do videos. I don't care what is between your legs or who you sleep with. Just do the job. Or do something else.
* That said, these pilots seem to have done a fine job with that approach and landing. I don't mind at all that the copilot appeared to offer a (Buddhist?) prayer. Prayer doesn't hurt any of us.
* Listen again to the video, and you'll note that the airplane reports several of the heights above the ground more than once. These come from the radar altimeter, which reads how much room you have below you at any given moment. You'll hear it say "Two Thousand" and "Four Hundred" twice. This tells you that the terrain in the area is undulating, and this is very unusual at most airports.
* After touchdown, the airplane directs the pilot to "Retard" the throttles. An old Airbus joke: The first time the plane says "Retard", that's a verb. The second time it says it, it is used as a noun.
Despite these 2 pilots doing a great job here, I will not get on an airline from a third-world country. The reason? Pakistan 8303.
Pakistan 8303 incurred a fatal crash of all souls on board at Karachi, Pakistan on May 22, 2020. The TL:DR of the story is that their approach to the airport was far outside what is required of a stabilized approach. They were crazy high...like an altitude three times too high....too close to the airport, forcing an extremely steep approach. They were so steep that they could not get their airspeed low enough for the airplane to allow them to lower the landing gear. Despite the warnings they were getting, they kept pressing the approach all the way to touchdown, where they touched down on the engines[!] because the landing gear still wasn't down. They then began a go-around maneuver, got airborne again, but because both engines were severely damaged to the point of failing, the plane crashed in a neighborhood nearby. 97 died.
If that was the end of the story, it would be bad enough. But no. The story continues.
As the investigators began to look into things, something about the copilot stood out. His qualifications just weren't right. He had a fake pilot's license.
But we're not at the end of the story yet.
When the investigators began to dig deeper, they found that Fourty percent of Pakistan's pilots had these fake licenses.
ICAO (the European "FAA") revoked Pakistan's approval to fly in Europe. Whatever planes they had in Europe were grounded and the crews in Europe had to find their way home on some other airline.
So, no. I don't trust a third-world airline. Maybe your pilot will turn out to be great, as these two in the video appear to me. But maybe your pilot will turn out to be not a pilot at all.
Blancolirio on Youtube has a series on this. If you're interested, you can begin here.
As always, YMMV.
azlibertarian